These calamities do not occur simultaneously. Some come during their military subjugation, others in the aftermath. But all come to pass. Ammon arrives during the stage when they are burdened and driven, a scene we have already read, but which lies in the future from Abinadi’s pronouncement.
Translation: Abinadi uses the phrase “they shall be driven before like a dumb ass”—or in other words, be treated as beasts of burden, which is the state in which Ammon finds the Limhites. However, there were no asses in the Western Hemisphere prior to European contact and no known beasts of burden in Mesoamerica. Thus both the specific animal and the concept of a draft animal would be foreign to Abinadi. Obviously, this case is another of Joseph Smith’s translating the meaning, rather than the specific words. The modern reader clearly understands this image but would probably be puzzled by a more culture-specific phrase, such as “tributaries with a tumpline.” (A tumpline around the forehead to help support and balance a heavy burden on the back is the standard mode of transport in Mesoamerica.) Hence, this translation of the concept is consistent with the less-than-literal translation mode that I argue for in this commentary.